wagyu tri-tip, shropshire 'croquette,' sweet potato bbq sauce, pickled garlic scape, beef chicharron, chocolate stout froth
There is an unutilized space on our restaurant's north terrace that is perfect for occasionally wheeling out our little Weber charcoal grill. When trying to capture the essence of real bbq for a dish, it's hard to beat the mindset that comes from fostering a good charcoal heat, soaking some wood, and standing outside 'babysitting' the smoke and heat... and while you're going through all that trouble for one piece of meat, might as well throw a few burgers on there for a kitchen meal as well. The tri-tip spent about 3 hours on slow smoke, then was bagged and dropped into the C-Vap at 56º until the next day. I personally find it difficult to barbeque without a beer in one hand, but a chef has to learn to work through challenges.
At one point while putting this dish together, Chef K mentioned a sweet potato bbq sauce. I had never heard of one, and after searching the internet he concluded the same. Oh well, if anyone in our kitchen is qualified to create one and have it taste pretty damned spectacular, it's a Kansas City-raised chef. I got to give him props on this one. The result was off the chain. It makes perfect sense as well. Sweet potato is a key member of the comfort food club, you know.
The Shropshire croquette explores rolling espumas into crumbs again. Creamy yellow-tinted Shropshire blue was infused into cream overnight. Afterwards it was strained, spiked with gelatin, and poured into an iSi. The cream was then foamed out into bacon streusel crumbs and carefully (I stress carefully) coated in crumbs. The iSi 'croquette' is definitely something we will occasionally utilize again and again.